Wades on a Mission: Dedication

Ensign College of Public Health

Awhile back we had the opportunity to attend the dedication of the Ensign College of Public Health. This beautiful campus is the result of a dream that was fulfilled with a great determination to help the people of West Africa. The desire here is to "teach a man to fish, that he might be fed all his life". Here the goal is to have a strong public health education in West Africa as a component of a long term solution for children who are sick and unhealthy and the mothers who care for them.

There is a flow of medical supplies and technical assistance that is helping but the long term solution is to teach the populous so that they can help themselves. This vision was begun in 2011 with Bob and Lynette Gay, who have been involved with the people of West Africa for over a decade, and a Ghanaian partner and mentor in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and then the University of Utah joined in the effort. It became a community-engaged development and that could be seen in the participants at the dedication. I hope that you will enjoy all the colorful pictures of the participants.

Ensign College is situated in Kpong, an hour and a half drive north and east of Accra on a beautiful piece of land adjacent to the Volta River. It is the dream of this school to see a future where parents and children in West Africa are healthy and strong, where there are ample trained and committed public health care professionals and where communities with excellent public health practices are the norm rather than the exception.